Merry Merry Merry Christmas

I can't believe how fast Christmas came this year.  I'm actually sad to take down the tree and decorations!  Although I'm not a big fan of winter and the cold weather, I love Christmastime.... being with family and seeing the kids so excited makes it all worth it.  Alexis and Andrew both loved helping me decorate the tree and wrap presents.  Albert did an awesome job of hanging lights outside this year and they wouldn't have gotten turned on if it wasn't for Alexis doing it every night.  As soon as it got dark, she turned them on as well as the lights on the tree.  She loved playing hide-n-seek and hiding under tree!

We have gotten quite a bit of snow already but it has been so cold that I haven't allowed the kids out to play much.  One morning they let me sleep in and when I woke up I looked out the window to find them all outside.... no wonder it was so quiet :)

We decorated gingerbread houses for the 1st time and it was so much fun! We're definitely going to do this every year!

drinking tea and decorating the snowflake and santa ornaments that Grandpa hand carved

Alexis had a lot of holiday projects at school.  It's so fun to see what she brings home in her backpack each day.  

She made reindeer food at preschool so on Christmas Eve we went out and she sprinkled it all over.  It had special glitter in it so that Santa would know which house was hers!

Both sets of grandparents came over on Christmas Eve and we had a fun day of chatting, playing and eating.  The kids were excited because they got to open the presents from Lolo, Lola, Grandma and Papa!

Alexis got her wish as she came down the stairs on Christmas morning and saw a bow & arrow that Santa had brought for her!

She shot "arrows" all day long on Christmas and it's now 4 days later and she's still loving it!

Another one of her favorite gifts was a little kitten that purrs and moves its paws from Grandma and Papa.  She has slept with it every night and keeps it under the covers with her.  The first night when I was tucking her in for bed I asked her what she was going to name her kitty and she said, "Miss Kara."  I smiled and cried as I left the room.

We all took turns playing 'bow and arrow' with Alexis. 

Even though Andrew got lots of "boy toys" (I just didn't get many pictures), he still insisted on trying on Alexis's new dress she got.  He added the headband for a few extra laughs ;)

Can't wait for Christmas with the Smock's next weekend!!!

Meeting Santa...

Two weeks ago we went to Bass Pro Shop so the kids could meet Santa and get their picture taken with him.  We talked about it before going and Alexis had practiced what she was going to say to Santa.  She was set on asking for a bow & arrow and Andrew wanted a train.  

We were only 2nd in line waiting and got to meet Santa as he came down the line to his chair.  Andrew went right up and shook his hand while Alexis had a death grip on my leg.

As soon as they got on Santa's lap, they both froze and wouldn't say a word!  But, at least their wasn't any tears, I guess!  After we left, Alexis was worried that Santa wouldn't know what to bring to her house because she didn't tell him.

After getting pictures taken, we had fun playing in Santa's workshop and walking around the store.

Random pics on my phone

Cornstarch?

This girl amazes me.

I love her so much.

Her new favorite thing to do is write her name.  She does it over and over again.

The very first time she did was in California a month ago and I had no idea she even knew how to!

I haven't been very good lately at sitting down with her to practice her letters.  

She just does it on her own.  She can sit for about 30 minutes in her workbook 

learning how to write letters.  She also likes to type her name on the computer and type all the names of the kids in her class.  She's getting really good at finding all the letters on the keyboard.

After getting in trouble for calling Grandma a poopy head on Skype tonight, (I have no idea where that one came from) I was telling her how it is not nice to use those kinds of words and call people names.  I talked to her about it for awhile and she looked at me and said, "I'm sorry Mom.  What about cornstarch?  Is that a nice word?"  I know I had to of looked at her funny.  I asked her what she knew about cornstarch and she went into a long story about how it is good for cleaning clothes and you can even put it in the dishwasher to clean the dishes.  I have no idea if that's even true or where she would have learned that.  Who knows... maybe she made it up!  

I'm thankful for...

my F A M I L Y

more California/Disneyland pictures